Tag: contraception

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A Pill For Men?

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Just who should take responsibility for birth control is a subject that divides many couples.

There are only two forms of male contraception — condoms and vasectomies, and they have disadvantages.

Though condoms have a 98 per cent success rate with perfect use, in reality and with human error, they prevent pregnancy only in 85 per cent of cases — an unacceptable risk for many couples.

Vasectomies are designed to be a permanent form of contraception (though a reversal is possible) and involve otherwise healthy men going under the knife.

Female contraceptives, on the other hand, such as the Pill or implants are effective and reversible, though they can cause nasty side-effects such as weight gain, depression and blood clots.

So why are there not more options for men?

Read full article.

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Novel Progestin Nestorone, Testosterone Promising as Transdermal Male Contraceptive

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HOUSTON – Applying transdermal gels containing off-label testosterone and an experimental nonandrogenic progestin showed promise as a form of reversible contraception for men in a randomized, double-blind, controlled pilot study in 99 men.

Healthy male volunteers were randomized in three groups to apply gels containing 10 g of testosterone plus placebo or testosterone plus either 8 mg or 12 mg of Nestorone, an investigational synthetic nonandrogenic progestin. They were asked to apply the gels daily for 20-24 weeks, and 56 complied.

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STC Teen Pregnancy report

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26 JUNE 2012 | LONDON – A new report from Save the Children UK – Every Woman’s Right: How Family Planning Saves Lives – highlights the fact that girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s. Babies born to younger mums are also at far greater risk and around one million babies born to adolescent girls die every year – babies are 60% more likely to die if their mother is under 18.

Read the full report Listen to the BBC Today programme’s Sarah Montague talking to pregnant teenagers at one STC clinic in Liberia

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Call to action: Support contraceptives on the New No Controversy Website

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26 JUNE 2012 | A number of PMNCH partners have launched a Call to Action and Support for contraceptives. More than 200 million women in developing countries who don’t want to get pregnant lack access to contraceptives. This is a life and death crisis. Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for women in Africa.

Contraceptives save lives. Giving women and girls access to contraceptives is transformational – families become healthier, wealthier, and better educated. Reducing unintended pregnancies leads to fewer girls dropping out of school and greater opportunity to escape poverty. Contraceptives are one of the best investments a country can make in its future… Read full article.

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No link seen between contraceptives and higher HIV risk-CDC

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ATLANTA, June 21 (Reuters) – There is no clear link between the use of contraceptives such as the birth control pill or injections such as Depo-Provera and an increased risk that a woman will contract HIV, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

But the CDC also said it was “strongly” encouraging the use of condoms as a precaution against the virus that causes AIDS.

Recent studies have suggested that the use of hormonal contraceptives could increase the risk of women contracting HIV. But after reviewing the studies, the Atlanta-based CDC said, “the evidence does not suggest” a link between oral contraceptives such as the birth control pill and increased HIV risk.

For injectable forms of birth control the evidence is inconclusive, but in the absence of more definitive research it too is considered safe, CDC officials said.

Read full article.

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Wording In Contraception Conversations Marks Idealogical Divides

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Fighting over semantics prevails in conversations over both the FDA’s definition of what the “morning-after pill” does as well as the Obama administration’s rule that employers and insurers provide no cost contraception to their covered employees.

The Hill: Report: Pregnancy Line Was Struck From Guide To ‘Morning-After Pill’
Federal health officials are heeding new doubts that emergency contraception actually scuttles pregnancies, according to a report. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allegedly edited its online description of how the “morning-after pill” works — striking the potentially dubious detail that continues to inspire most of the backlash against the administration’s birth control coverage mandate. According to The Daily Beast, the FDA’s online guide to birth control methods used to state that emergency contraception might stop a pregnancy by preventing a fertilized egg from “implanting to the uterus.” This was the prevailing view until experts recently told The New York Times that it has no scientific basis (Viebeck, 6/18).

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Birth Control Tied To Heart Attack And Stroke, But Risks Very Small, Study Says

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A sweeping new Danish study concludes that hormonal contraception increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, but the overall risk for individual women is very low.

“The amount of attention paid to these minuscule risks, and what are likely to be very small differences in vascular risk, detracts attention from more salient issues, like preventing unwanted pregnancy,” argued Dr. Diana B. Petitti, a professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University. Petitti wrote an editorial accompanying the findings, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

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Stop Our Sperm, Please

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Meet the men who want better male birth control – and want it badly

Lenny Smalls, whose Facebook page says he lives in Chicago and works as a transportation analyst, is very interested in long-acting, reversible male contraception. According to his posts on a fan page for one form being tested — known as RISUG or Vasalgel — Smalls is sufficiently frustrated by the pace of such drugs coming to the U.S. market to have begun personally testing an Indonesian herbal product called gandarusa.

“I plan to become the guinea pig and test this products effect on myself and my sperm,” he wrote recently. “I will take 1 pill daily and record how I feel everyday. After 30 days, I will see my doctor and have my sperm tested to see if it was effected by the supplement.” Earlier this week, Smalls’ plan ran into a hitch when the first doctor he saw refused to cooperate. (Smalls did not respond to interview requests, though he did agree to friend this reporter on Facebook.)

Read full article.

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I’m in my 40s and I want off the Pill. How likely am I to get pregnant?

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The question

At what age is it reasonable for a woman to think that she’s no longer at risk of becoming pregnant? I’m in my mid-40s and am thinking it’s about time to stop using my birth control pills. Is it safe now or should I wait?

The answer

In general, your child-bearing years usually end approximately 10 years before the onset of menopause. This is the time in a woman’s life when hormonal changes cause her periods to stop and the body is no longer able to get pregnant. The age of menopause varies from woman to woman, but the average age in Canada is 51, according to the society of obstetricians and gynecologists of Canada .

It is only reasonable for a woman to think she is no longer at any risk of becoming pregnant when she reaches menopause. While the risk of pregnancy decreases significantly after 40 (when cycles become irregular and ovulation is unpredictable), there is still a chance of getting pregnant until menopause is reached.

Read full article.

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Abortion Qualms on Morning After Pill May be Unfounded

ASRM News and Research

Labels inside every box of morning-after pills, drugs widely used to prevent pregnancy after sex, say they may work by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman’s uterus. Respected medical authorities, including the National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic, have said the same thing on their Web sites.